Yamaha XS650 Chopper/Bobber
Santa Cruz, California

After doing a "rustoration" on a 1977 KZ1000 Police special ( my favorite type of MC), I decided to do a custom chop. Not wanting to make a mjor monetary investment, chopping an old metric bike seemed like a good idea. The XS650 is a simple 2 cylinder that is very durable.

The Yamaha 1981 XS650H was purchased
on Craigslist.
The bike hadn't been ridden for awhile and was missing the battery and seat.
Once I got the bike home and put a battery in it; I was able to start it up and it ran fine. With only 6K on the speedo, it should have lots of life.

The first step was to decide what type of Chopper to make, how far to rake out the front end
and how long to extend the back end. I mocked up some drawings in ProE and started planning the bike. I wanted to make the bike long and low, drag style/bobber. The cradle, fork, wheels, and engine are stock. Here are some numbers:

4.5" rear stretch

35 degrees rake (27degrees*)

6.5 Trail (4.53"*)

90.5" Overall length (83.5"*)

64.5" Wheelbase

4" ground clearance (5.3"*)

25" Seat height (31.1"*)

2.5" Seat vertical travel

(* means stock number)

The new xs650 handles ok. It is nice and stable but not too responsive, just what one might expect with 6.5" of trail. The ride with the air shock seat is great. One can take a real hammering with a hardtail but the seat saves your back. Overall, it is quick and lots of fun to ride.

There were some difficulties with the start up. Lost the clutch second time out. It would have helped if I had tightened the camming jam nut on the clutch housing. It had vibrated loose. Apparently a lot of things like to vibrate loose on this bike. The chain chewed up the fender. It took four trims before that issue went away. An ider roller is in the future. Another engine problem cropped up after a high speed run. The bike would start and idle fine, but would completely cut out the second one rolled on the throttle. Well thanks to XS650 Garage USA the problem was solved. The switch box was vibrating so hard it was cracking the welds (Aluminum) and falling apart. This caused the Ignition ground wire to become loose. It took a while to find that one. Still have a minor oil leak at the head gasket and a kick stand mount issue.

The tank and fender will be painted by Crazy Horse Painting, color TBD. I have designed a LED tail light assembly and a LED handlebar turn signal assembly for the bike. These parts will happen in a month or two...or three. This will finish the work for now. Future stuff include: polish/paint hubs and SS spokes,rebuild/paint engine, pretty up the exhaust.